May 3, 2007

Animal magnetism

Why did the chicken cross the road?

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. Sure, it’s an old joke but in New Almaden, residents rallied to save one hen and her prized chicks from just such a road.

Houdini disappeared one night from Kitty Monahan’s mini-farm only to reappear on Almaden Road with a nest of eggs. Photos by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

The mighty chicken adventure started when one of Kitty Monahan’s fowl kept escaping from the pen on the mini-farm where the animal lover lives. Across the street on Almaden Road, Skip Scollan’s rooster, “Roostie,” took a keen interest in the shapely fowl except the pullet of his attentions had no interest. But one time the hen had a change of heart and Monahan’s chicken rendezvoused with Roostie and disappeared into the night.

“We looked all over for her,” said Monahan. “Finally we found her across the street from Skip’s house by the mailbox near the road in some brush. Now we call her “Houdini” because she kept disappearing. And Roostie is our wayward rooster.”

Yes, Houdini flew the coop one night with Roostie who makes his home in a tree in front of the New Almaden Post Office…when he’s not chasing the chickens in the neighborhood.

Skip Scollan and Kitty Monahan rescue Houdini and her brood from the roadside in New Almaden.

After Houdini and Roostie’s chicken courting ritual, she nested a full 21-day gestation across the street from Scollan’s, tending to her eggs. It’s called going broody, a chicken who will sit fast on the nest, and protest or peck in defense if disturbed and rarely leave to eat or drink. That worried Monahan who would visit Houdini daily with the school children who tour the historic district as part of the program at the New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum. But she also had neighbor John Slenter repair the coop in preparation for Houdini’s return.

Both Monahan and Scollan kept checking Houdini at her roadside hangout as she protected her eggs, never leaving very long except for an occasional quick dinner of an insect or a worm. Houdini gave new meaning to a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

“She didn’t have any food or water so we were worried,” said Monahan. “We became surrogate parents always checking on her.”

Recently, the two congenial neighbors discovered three of the eggs had hatched with fluffy, soft offspring. They quickly captured Houdini, the three chicks and the two remaining eggs and returned them to Monahan’s secure pen far from harm’s way at the Almaden Road nesting site. And the first thing Houdini did when she returned to her home—eat! And then she checked on her family and shared her adventures with the other hens. Roostie was nowhere to be found but he could be heard crowing from the treetop down the street as if he was quite proud of himself.

And that’s why the chicken crossed the road in New Almaden.